


Time After Time

by WatermelonTuesdays



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: First Kiss, Fluff, For Shiro's Birthday, Love Confessions, M/M, Sap and Sentimentality, Seeing the future, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-01
Updated: 2019-03-01
Packaged: 2019-11-07 06:59:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17955782
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WatermelonTuesdays/pseuds/WatermelonTuesdays
Summary: Keith saw more of the future than he lets on, and on Shiro's birthday he finally lives out the moment he's been waiting for his whole life.----The point is that although Keith has not seen everything, he has seen enough. He has known his future for years and walked through it like a prophet.He knew, still in the midst of a bitter war, the full spectrum of joy to despair that would wrack his body on Shiro’s wedding day. He saw it coming months away, from the moment he laid eyes on the Atlas’s communications officer quietly mooning over the star that is Takashi Shirogane.Keith did nothing.





	Time After Time

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday, Shiro Baby!!

Keith had seen it all.

Two years on the back of a space whale, reliving the past, and experiencing the future, both in shocking and vivid relief, had shown him everything. Even emotions reverberated through the years to echo into Keith’s skin. 

He had felt the despair and regret Krolia had experienced when she left him and his dad behind. Feeling that pain had played a large part in how Keith had accepted her back in his life so easily; he couldn’t deny her sorrow when he felt his whispering beneath his skin in the wake of yet another emotionally exhausting flash of memory.

The visions seemed to be connected to points of high, concentrated emotion – the kind that really packs a punch.

Keith is sure that if Pidge had been there for it, she would have come up with some kind of measurement of internal strife, some Angstometer, that could predict the visions or at the very least quantify them in some way. 

There were very few good moments to share, past or future. That was something that Keith had to try hard not to take as proof of his childhood theory that life is pain and nothing more. 

He’s learned the fallacy of that kind of thinking. Shiro has taught him the beauty of the universe despite, and often because of, pain. 

The point is that although Keith has not seen everything, he has seen enough. He has known his future for years and walked through it like a prophet.

He knew, still in the midst of a bitter war, the full spectrum of joy to despair that would wrack his body on Shiro’s wedding day. He saw it coming months away, from the moment he laid eyes on the Atlas’s communications officer quietly mooning over the star that is Takashi Shirogane. 

Keith did nothing.

It was easy to do nothing, actually. It’s amazingly easy to play along when you know the script. 

Keith pulled back and settled into his role as leader. He stayed just close enough that it looked as though they had only grown naturally apart. Like his time away with his mother meant that he didn’t need Shiro in his life the same way, like his heart didn’t still beat for one man and one man only. He didn’t pull back so far that it was suspicious. Not so far back that he couldn’t still step in at any moment’s notice to keep Shiro safe and alive. Not so far back that he had to cut his own heart out of his chest. 

But then, knowing everything didn’t stop the hurt when he watched Shiro say “I do” to another man. Just as knowing everything didn’t stop that hurt from being mixed with a confusing but undeniable joy. How could he not feel joy knowing that Shiro had found his happiness? Shiro’s health and happiness had been all Keith had wanted from the moment Shiro had taught him how to dream again; Keith couldn’t deny the realization of his greatest hopes as they played out in front of him.

His best man speech left the entire room in tears.

It filled Keith with a deep-seated sense of calm.

He knew what came next. He didn’t know when, didn’t know how he would while away the time in between, but he had seen the future and knew what was to come. He had only to meet it. 

Returning to Earth after 7 decapheebs in space is a rush in and of itself. No other planet has this exact gravity or this exact taste in the air. 

This time of year, even the desert has a bite of chill in the air. 

The party below has been raging for hours, and judging by the light and sound pouring out of every window below, it’s not likely to die down soon.

Keith had come up to the roof to catch a breath, but the sight of the wide open sky steals it from his lungs. It’s hardly the most spectacular view in all the universe, but it’s so uniquely carved into Keith’s psyche that it is the most beautiful sight he has ever seen. The milky way is bright and visible in the cold February air. There’s not a cloud in sight, and here on the garrison base there’s so little light pollution that Keith can see it all stretch from horizon to horizon. 

He tilts his head back to spot Orion. It’s the first constellation he’d ever learned to spot for himself, before the garrison, before Shiro, before foster homes. It was something his dad had shown him, pointing it out in the fall when the constellation had just entered their sky for its winter journey. “There’s Orion. Winter must be on it’s way.”

The rusty creak of the door behind him doesn’t startle Keith. Instead he smiles to himself and leans against the brick wall that lines the roof, feeling the pulse of something inevitable send shivers along his spine.

“Hey birthday boy,” he says without looking.

Shiro pauses his steps. “How’d you know it was me?”

Keith shrugs and tames the Cheshire grin before Shiro can sidle up beside him.

“How’s it feel to finally be double digits?” Keith asks, folding his hands together and glancing sideways at Shiro.

Shiro presses his back against the wall and tilts his head to look up at the night sky, the one arm with an elbow leans against the top of the wall, tilting him slightly towards Keith. It’s an open and easy stance, typically Shiro.

“Well, I definitely feel more like 40 than 10,” he chuckles.

“Yeah, you look it too.” Keith pauses just enough to give weight to his next words, “Old timer.”

Shiro’s chuckle turns into a belly laugh. “It’s been a long time since you’ve called me that.” He sighs and inspects the stars with the same wonder and devotion as he had when he was young, optimistic, and scar-less. “It’s almost surreal to have everyone here for my party. I don’t know why I doubted Pidge when she said she’d make it the party of the century.”

“Oh, you should never doubt Pidge. Bad things happen when you doubt Pidge,” Keith says sagely.

“Oh, I know. She did everything. She tracked Lance from his farm, grounded the entire IGF Atlas for 3 weeks to make sure Hunk and I would be here, she dragged Matt in from god-knows-where. She even brought you in from the other end of the universe.”

Keith hums an amused sound, “Not the other end exactly, but not far off. There’s been some serious solar flashes a couple hundred million lightyears off the gamma-6 quadrant and it’s…” Keith stops himself and laughs ruefully. “I’m not here to talk about work.” His eyes dart up to meet Shiro’s, “I’m here for you.”

A quietness falls around them as they hold each others gaze.

“How are you, Shiro?” There’s no mistaking the depth of emotion and concern in Keith’s voice.

Shiro shifts and is the first to drop their gaze. He gives a half-hearted sort of shrug. “Things are good. After…” he clears his throat and starts again, “After the divorce I got a little,” he gestures to try and find the word, “ungrounded. But Hunk was there to keep me from burying myself in work, and now I’m good.” He says it like he means it, and judging by the way the tension eases from Shiro’s shoulders with a sigh, Keith believes it. “All those video messages you sent me helped too. Thank you for that.”

“It was nothing. I just didn’t want you to forget me while I was off on the other end of the universe.” He smiles lightly as he throws Shiro’s words back to him.

Shiro turns then, just enough so that he can look down at Keith with the full force of his beautiful grey eyes.

Keith feels a spark in his fingers that travels along his nerves to his heart. 

This is it.

“I could never forget you, Keith. You’ve been the most constant person in my life, you’ve always been there for me. Always when I need you.”

Keith has to swallow twice to clear the emotion from his voice before he can speak. “That’s supposed to be my line,” he says with a wry smile. “You’ve been everything to me for so long, I’m just returning it with everything you deserve.”

Keith stands up straight with a light push against the wall. 

There’s a glimmer at the edge of Shiro’s eye: a tear reflecting in the starlight. Keith can feel the matching pool of unshed tears in his own eyes.

He takes a small step forward and raises a shaking hand to Shiro’s cheek.

“You deserve every happiness in the universe, Shiro. Anything I can give you is yours.”

Shiro blinks under the intensity of Keith’s gaze and a single tear races to the ground. His hand covers Keith’s and presses it into his cheek. The slight stubble scratches at Keith’s palm.

“What if I want something you can’t give?” His voice is soft and sad, and his eyes stay closed as he waits.

Keith leans closer so that he can feel the warmth of Shiro’s body cut through the February air.

“Whatever it is, it’s already yours. Shiro,” Keith pauses and steels himself, “Takashi,” he says with feeling. Shiro’s eyes flutter open on a gasp and he looks at Keith with a wonderment that is breathtaking. “You already have my heart.”

Shiro whispers Keith’s name as he slowly descends to brush his lips lightly against Keith’s. 

It’s hardly even a touch, but it packs such a rush of emotion, love, hope, trust, relief, and joy, that the moment pulses around them. It is so strong it eludes all laws of time and space, and somewhere, years ago, on the back of a space whale, a much younger Keith stares up at the stars and cries in happiness for his future.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading!
> 
> Drop a kudos or come say hi in the comments if you liked the story. 
> 
> I ended up deleting my old tumblr and making a new one with the same name. If you followed me before, unfortunately, you'll have to look me up again. 
> 
> I'm on twitter and tumblr and I always post my new fics, etc if you're interested.  
> Twitter: @WTuesdays  
> Tumblr: WatermelonTuesdays


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